On Sunday, June 19, 2005, at 02:45 PM, Larry wrote:
>> the stuff they
>> write just won't work any more than adapting Bach or Mozart to
>> swing or
>> rock.
>>
I take it you never heard Ward Swingle's The Swingle Singers.
That bunch in Paris during the early 60s made Bach swing like Benny
Goodman, and they did a Mozart album that was almost as good.
Try this: get a bass player who can play (preferably down to low C on
piano) and have him just play the original notes to the bass line on
"Air on the G String) and think: this line swings! It will. I
play it just with clarinet and bass, then add piano and drums. You
can swing it beautifully without doing violence to Bach--who, I
think, would have loved it! Haven't tried it with tenor, but might
work even better. You do need a piano player who can read the
original, as least the first time through.
Charlie
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"Under every stone lurks a politician." --Aristophanes